My Gateway to Joy

When I was very little there was a tan cassette tape that I and all my siblings would listen to often.  The tape was of a radio program called "Gateway to Joy," which featured Elisabeth Elliot speaking about various things for a brief amount of time.  On this particular tape she read stories for children.


I'd forgotten about this tan tape till yesterday.  And, this morning, I've found the transcript to part of the tape, which I'll reproduce here:

"You are loved with an everlasting love." That's what the Bible says. "And underneath are the everlasting arms." This is your friend Elisabeth Elliot, telling stories for children during this week.

I had a postcard from a mother whose little son Isaac, three years old, listens every day to Gateway To Joy, which comes on at 11:15 a.m. She says, "I tell Isaac, 'It's quiet time. We are listening to Mrs. Elliot.' He is very good to play quietly with cars or whatever. The other day in the car I heard him say, '1-800-759-4JOY' with the exact intonation of your hostess. Then he said, '1-800-759-4569.' I decided if he ever gets lost, the police will be calling Gateway To Joy. I hope that makes you smile."

Well, it certainly did. Thank you ever so much, Kathy Lewis, from Alderwood, Washington. I get letters often from mothers who home school and whose children are asked to be quiet and sit and listen to Elisabeth Elliot, if the program Gateway To Joy comes in the middle of their homeschooling time. I do want to thank you.

And I often have letters from children. I do remember you when I speak on this program, and I realize that many of the programs I give would not be of the slightest interest to you. This week I decided that I'm going to tell you some stories. These stories are for all different ages, and I especially hope that you children will enjoy them.

My father gave me a little book that he grew up on called THE GOLDEN WINDOWS by Laura E. Richards. So today I'm going to read you the first story, which is the title story, "The Golden Windows."

"All day long the little boy worked hard, in field, in barn, in shed. For his people were poor farmers, and could not pay a workman. But at sunset, there came an hour that all was his own, for his father had given it to him. Then the boy would go up to the top of the hill and look across at another hill that rose some miles away. On this far hill stood a house with windows of clear gold and diamonds. They shone and blazed so that it made the boy wink to look at them.

But after a while, the people in the house put up shutters, as it seemed, and then it looked like any common farmhouse. The boy supposed they did this because it was suppertime, and then he would go into his house and have his supper of bread and milk and go to bed.

One day the boy's father called him and said, 'You've been a good boy. You've earned a holiday. Take this day for your own. But remember that God gave it, and try to learn some good thing.'

The boy thanked his father and kissed his mother, and then he put a piece of bread in his pocket and started off to find the house with the golden windows. It was pleasant walking. His bare feet made marks in the white dust. When he looked back, the footprints seemed to be following him and making company for him. His shadow too kept beside him, and would dance or run with him as he pleased, so it was very cheerful.

By and by he felt hungry. He sat down by a brown brook that ran through the alder hedge by the roadside, and ate his bread and drank the clear water. Then he scattered the crumbs for the birds, as his mother had taught him to do, and went on his way.

After a long time he came to a high green hill. When he had climbed the hill, there was the house on the top. But it seemed that the shutters were up, for he could not see the golden windows. He came up to the house and then he could well have wept, for the windows were of clear glass like any others and there was no gold anywhere about them.

A woman came to the door and looked kindly at the boy and asked him what he wanted. 'I saw the golden windows from our hilltop,' he said. 'I came to see them, but now they're only glass.' The woman shook her head and laughed. 'We are poor farming people,' she said, 'and we are not likely to have gold about our windows. But glass is better to see through.'

She bade the boy sit down on a broad stone step at the door and brought him a cup of milk and a cake, and bade him rest." Do you know what that word "bade" means? She told him to. She told him to sit down and she told him to rest.

"Then she called her daughter, a child of his own age, and nodded kindly at the two and went back to her work. The little girl was barefooted like himself, and wore a brown cotton dress. But her hair was golden like the windows he had seen, and her eyes were blue like the sky at noon.

She led the boy about the farm and showed him her black calf with the white star on its forehead. He told her about his own house, about his own at home, which was red like a chestnut with four white feet. Then when they had eaten an apple together and so had become friends, the boy asked her about the golden windows. The little girl nodded and said she knew all about them, only he had mistaken the house.

'You have come quite the wrong way,' she said. 'Come with me. I will show you the house with the golden windows. Then you will see for yourself.'

They went to a knoll that rose behind the farmhouse, and as they went the little girl told him that the golden windows could only be seen at a certain hour, about sunset. 'Yes, I know that,' said the boy.

When they reached the top of the knoll, the girl turned and pointed. There on a hill far away, stood a house with windows of clear gold and diamond, just as he had seen them. When they looked again, the boy saw that it was his own house.

Then he told the little girl that he must go, and he gave her his best pebble, the white one with the red band, that he had carried for a year in his pocket. She gave him three horse chestnuts, one red like satin, one spotted, and one white like milk. He kissed her and promised to come again, but he did not tell her what he had learned. So he went back down the hill and the little girl stood in the sunset and watched him.

The way home was long, and it was dark before the boy reached his father's house. But the lamplight and firelight shone through the windows, making them almost as bright as he had seen them from the hilltop. When he opened the door, his mother came to kiss him. His little sister ran to throw her arms about his neck, and his father looked up and smiled from his seat by the fire.

'Have you had a good day?' asked his mother. 'Yes.' The boy had had a very good day.

'And have you learned anything?' asked his father. 'Yes,' said the boy. 'I have learned that our house has windows of gold and diamond.'"

I wonder if you understand that story. Can you think what it means? Do you want me to tell you what it means? I really don't want to tell you what it means. Not right now, anyway. Maybe I'll tell you on another day what I think it means.

One of the wonderful things about stories is that they usually have many different meanings for many different people. Can you learn anything just about his trip up to the house? Did you notice that he was glad to walk by himself? His bare feet made marks in the white dust, and the footprints seemed to be following him and making company for him. His shadow too kept beside him, and would dance or run with him, if he danced or ran, so it was very cheerful. I think he enjoyed the brown brook and the clear water and the birds and the green hill.

I hope you're learning to really love the beauty in the world that God made. Birds. Maybe the only birds you ever see are pigeons because you live in the middle of a big city, or maybe you live on a farm where you have all kinds of birds.

We have a mockingbird that sings at our house. He has a tremendous repertoire. He can imitate a catbird, and a catbird imitates a cat. You know, he sounds almost like a cat. The mockingbird imitates a cardinal absolutely perfectly. He can imitate a robin, and then he has a whole repertoire of his own. He trills and whistles and chirps and trills and whistles and chirps. It's just as if he's practicing. I love to listen to the mockingbird.

I love to watch the seagulls. Do you love to watch a sunset? Are you up early enough to watch a sunrise? It's wonderful to watch a sunrise. Have you thanked God for the beauty around you?

Perhaps you're listening to this program in the wintertime. Maybe there's snow. Maybe there's darkness. Much shorter days. My husband grew up in Norway, where in December they only have about four hours of daylight.

What do you think about those golden windows? Does it teach you a lesson about contentment? Think about that. Tell your brother or sister the story. If you don't have a brother or a sister, maybe you can tell your dad when he comes home. See how much of it you can remember. The boy said he had had a very good day, and he had learned something.

Another thing that I noticed in this story was that the little girl was unselfish with him and he was unselfish with her. What did he give her? Do you remember? Yes. He gave her his best pebble. What did it look like? A white one, with a red band. What did she give him? Some of you remembered. Three horse chestnuts.

We used to love to collect horse chestnuts. But hers were red. One was red like satin. One was spotted. One was white like milk. I have to confess, I've never seen a white horse chestnut, or even a spotted one. I think all the ones we had were red like satin.